Jump to content
aberdeen-music

Windfarms?


Hog

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 70
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

its just the other side of my house. Go up the A96 past Inverurie and when you come round the corner from Morgan McVeighs you'll see them on the right. If you keep going then there is a new one being build on the left as you go down the hill towards huntly.

Its ace. I suggest you take the first right after McVeighs and that'll take you down a wee road to the base of the wind farms, or follow the A96 up the hill to a sign pointing left that says Insch, that'll take you to another small road opposite the wind farm for some ace photo oppertunities.

Pete

inthehills

behind the windfarm.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

windfarms? good or bad?

i think they look kinda elegant and cool and don't think they ruin the landscape at all.

The most important thing to remember about windfarms is that they attract a large public subsidy, paid largely up-front. ie They can get up-to an 80% subsidy over 25 years, of which 85% is paid in the first 5 years. Being the most developed & easiest-established renewable, this has made them very attractive to a whole range of corporate interests/investors who are really only in it for the money. Menawhile, the rest of Scotland's many forms of renewable energy are being seriously starved of investment, despite most having a generating potential/environmental suitability far in excess of windpower.

However, it is not as simple as good or bad - In the right place & scale, windpower is indeed a valuable form of renewable. This is usually on a local scale & as only part of a range of renewable sources/energy conservation measures. Large scale developments are not the most eficent use of the technology. Most of the current & proposed generation of wind developments are established on the option system, where power companies down south buy shares in them to demonstrate a "commitment" to renewables & avoid heavy fines for failling to do anything about renewables in their own area - So wind turbines don't actually need to generate any power to make money/meet environmental objectives at all. Which is fine because so far, only one Scottish windfarm has ever managed to meet its targets with any reliability.

For environmental impact, windfarms are assessed on a totally different & lower standard to all other forms of generation - ie they only consider to the edge of the foundation pad for the turbine & no more. The miles of roads, cableways & land drains that service the turbines & the interconnection network are specifically excluded. Any landscape under a windfarm is going to be significantly altered (I won't say damaged yet because so far, few windfarms have been built on truly pristine land) for centuries after the farm is decomissioned.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We ought to have the same attitude now towards large scale alternative energy projects like windfarms.

Except that for future renewable strategies, most are agreed that any sustainable long-term solution is going to involve generating much more on a local basis, from a wider range of renewable sources, rather than a single-source large-scale supply.

Another point that has been badly understated is the vital need for consumers (large & small scale) to be more economic & efficent in their power use. Something like a 20% reduction in demand is predicted to be within fairly easy reach of basic economies & further reductions could be made with a bit of effort.

Personally, I'd prefer to switch a few more things off regularly, rather than see our uplands carpeted with turbines so power companies south of the border can avoid their responsabillities. :(

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We ought to have the same attitude now towards large scale alternative energy projects like windfarms.

At what expense, though? Windfarms aren't the most attractive of things, and if we continue building them at the current rate, we're going to see people put off Scotland by the fact that the outlook is spoilt by the turbines. That could cause a lot of trouble for the country, especially in light of independence possibly occuring at some point in the near future.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

At what expense, though? Windfarms aren't the most attractive of things, and if we continue building them at the current rate, we're going to see people put off Scotland by the fact that the outlook is spoilt by the turbines. That could cause a lot of trouble for the country, especially in light of independence possibly occuring at some point in the near future.

I disagree, i know a large amount of people who find wind farms not only mesmorising but beautiful in their own way. I am one of them.

If you go into mainland europe, you see windfarms everywhere, you dont hear of France's tourist population waining because of them.

And what does windfarms seriously have to do with an independant scotland? If your country can't be independant because some windfarms are such a detrement to tourism, are you sure you want to live in a country with such a pathetic basis of economy?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

At what expense, though? Windfarms aren't the most attractive of things, and if we continue building them at the current rate, we're going to see people put off Scotland by the fact that the outlook is spoilt by the turbines. That could cause a lot of trouble for the country, especially in light of independence possibly occuring at some point in the near future.

Damn right PVH. Even if you don't like wind turbines aesthetically, I think it shows the country as a more environmentally friendly place, and that in turn makes it a more attractive place to spend your holidays.

Beats the hell out acid rain-scorched forests and shit anyway.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Beats the hell out acid rain-scorched forests and shit anyway.

I was going to add this point in, glad you brought it up...we wont have such a beautiful landscpae in years to come if we dont start approving of energy sources like this, i know i would rather have some countryside 'spoiled' by a few turbines, than have mountains dying off and smog riddled due to pollution.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I disagree, i know a large amount of people who find wind farms not only mesmorising but beautiful in their own way. I am one of them.

If you go into mainland europe, you see windfarms everywhere, you dont hear of France's tourist population waining because of them.

And what does windfarms seriously have to do with an independant scotland?

Do you like them enough to see all but a preserved token of our upland & island areas covered in the bloody things? Because that is what the IAT & other proponents of windpower make few bones about being their ultimate objective.

Having had a few years head-start on us, much of mainland Europe is now rethinking the position on windpower in favour of other renewables. Thanks in no small part to wholesale abuse of public subsidies & the clear possibility of rampant corruption & self-serving amongst the interested parties. Interestingly, the countries with the highest electricity costs are also those with the most turbines - for the same reasons.

Maybe because Scotland needs relatively few of the things?

For once, we are a country with no shortage of other less intrusive & damaging forms of renewable energy, some of which are even the product of home-grown R&D - eg Prof Salter's world-class work on wave power & local hydro in Glasgow, which has been done on an absolute shoestring compared to the largely Scandinavian-dominated windpower biz, yet promises a much greater return in the long term.

The future of windpower is limited to around the next 25 years or so instead of the next 50-100+ years which is what we should be looking to provide for. That however does little for a bunch of politicians who are looking little beyond a sticking plaster for the next round of elections.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

oh yeah. And I rather have windfarms on the tops of hills than coal fired or nuclear powerstations.

Why don't you take the point that this is not the inevitable alternative?

Scotland & indeed other parts of the UK & Europe have a good choice of other renewables, yet largely thanks to vested interests & skillfull lobbying, windpower has, for all the wrong reasons, grabbed the headlines & a totally disproportionate part of the finite budget for renewables.

The days when a few pretty turbines were valuable as attention-getters for the wider renewables issue are long-gone IMO & we need to be diverting that money into better, more practical & nationally-equitable solutions. In addition, reduction in consumption/demand also has a vital part to play in this.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Do you like them enough to see all but a preserved token of our upland & island areas covered in the bloody things?

No fancy answer but yes, yes i do.

EDIT: I wrote something along these lines aswell but my net crapped out.

'Are you narrowminded? Im asking this because, i agree that windfarms aren't the be all and end all to our problems, but they are a step in the right direction. And i truly am in the camp of anyone who thinks they are pointless is part of the problem and therefore a moron, thats how i feel.'

I wrote it better, but the setiments remain.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Actually, seeing the landscape covered with wind turbines ought to make us aware of just how bad our old attitudes used to be. We have to take measures to halt climate change and pollution, and we should be prepared to absorb the cost, financial or otherwise, of fixing such a huge problem.

Stop whining about "ruining our precious landscape". We've spent the last 200 years or so burning fossil fuels as fast as we can, building huge cities and roads, cutting down ancient forests and so on - massively altering the landscape. Why suddenly start worrying about it now when we actually have a chance to do something truly positive.

Ultimately, when better technology exists we can dismantle windfarms, but until then we should be doing everything we can to deal with the problem of climate change and pollution.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No fancy answer but yes, yes i do.

'Are you narrowminded? Im asking this because, i agree that windfarms aren't the be all and end all to our problems, but they are a step in the right direction. And i truly am in the camp of anyone who thinks they are pointless is part of the problem and therefore a moron, thats how i feel.'

That upland environment has its own role in the greater scheme of things you know - as well as being home to a fair number of fragile & threatened species of plant & animal too. Do they not deserve some concern? Especially when here, we can fairly easilly spread & reduce the environmental impact over a wider range of sources?

Windfarms stopped being a step in the right direction & became a problem in their own right the moment they were planned out of scale to their practical capacity, available funding & without direct relavance/contribution to the communities they were foisted-upon. I've got no problem with turbines (or even whole groups of them) where they are practically sited - again, remember that most of the turbine downtime in Scotland is caused by the windspeed being too high rather than too low & for some farms, that can be as much as two-thirds of the time.

I'd suggest the current predominance of windpower is the narrowest, most short-termist & ultimately most exploitative implementation of any form of renewable strategy & the one that has the shortest & most impractical lifespan. If arguing for giving the proper funding & chance to succeed for a wider range of technologies, more suited to our particular environment & situation is short-sighted then yes, I am & I'm proud to be! :p:)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That upland environment has its own role in the greater scheme of things you know - as well as being home to a fair number of fragile & threatened species of plant & animal too. Do they not deserve some concern?

Of course they deserve consideration, but from what i can fathom, no one has plans to build windfarms on such important areas of landscape. Every windfarm i have seen has been on a desolate field with virtually no wildlife or plantation.

Windfarms stopped being a step in the right direction & became a problem in their own right the moment they were planned out of scale to their practical capacity' date=' available funding & without direct relavance/contribution to the communities they were foisted-upon. I've got no problem with turbines (or even whole groups of them) where they are practically sited - again, remember that most of the turbine downtime in Scotland is caused by the windspeed being too high rather than too low & for some farms, that can be as much as two-thirds of the time.[/quote']

Its a valid point, but lets get past it and start situating them properly, taking wind speeds and wildlife into consideration, then they pose no problem to anyone.

I'd suggest the current predominance of windpower is the narrowest' date=' most short-termist & ultimately most exploitative implementation of any form of renewable strategy & the one that has the shortest & most impractical lifespan. If arguing for giving the proper funding & chance to succeed for a wider range of technologies, more suited to our particular environment & situation is short-sighted then yes, I am & I'm proud to be![/quote']

We should look into long term solutions, but right now, we have wind, solar and water powered energy as a good resource to us, if these are only short time as stripey points out, then lets up root them and put inplace measures that are better. We have enough technology to do what we can, and we should do that, be it a short term solution or not. Its pointless to think that windfarms can harm us in anyway, when their benifits outway their cons as we speak in 2007.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Stop whining about "ruining our precious landscape". We've spent the last 200 years or so burning fossil fuels as fast as we can, building huge cities and roads, cutting down ancient forests and so on - massively altering the landscape. Why suddenly start worrying about it now when we actually have a chance to do something truly positive.

Ultimately, when better technology exists we can dismantle windfarms, but until then we should be doing everything we can to deal with the problem of climate change and pollution.

Except that Scotland is not as badly-off in that respect as other places & we still have an environment worth preserving, even if it is not pristine.

Most of the exploitation of our landscape has been for the benifit of other places & not ourselves & as little seems to have changed with windpower, maybe it is now more important we conserved our own resources better.

BTW, practical large scale conservation started pretty early here, as long ago as the seventeenth century in fact. This is hardly a last-minute situation & much of the historic damage stemmed from large-scale clearance, not drainage, road construnction & concreting - which creates a very different situation for regeneration. Also, a significant part of our uplands were deforested by natural climate change, with no intervention whatsoever from man. These are now amongst the areas most threatened by windfarms.

If you are worried about climate change & pollution, just consider that any environmental advantage of the entire, current & future windpower development in Scotland was utterly wiped-out when Hollyrood licenced just two industrial lime kilns to switch to importing used car tyres for their fuel source. Maybe that might indicate just how insignificant the contribution of windpower is.

Better technology already exists & with a fairer distribution of funding stands to make a very large part of our windpower development redundant very quickly. You can bet the vested intrests there don't want that to happen.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


×
×
  • Create New...